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god-fucking-dammit-mizutani · 4 years

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Taishiro doing a Halloween date!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

This turned out more like a date on a Halloween, but I happened to go to my first corn maze this year since it was the only social distancing, outside seasonal activity available and the whole while I was thinking about this haa I hope you like it and have a swell day!!!

Cross posted on Ao3

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"It was the first bright idea you've had all day," Koushirou says, hugging the small cup of cider as evenly between his two hands as possible. When Taichi flutters his eyes up to meet Koushirou's questionly, he clarifies, "Waiting three hours in line for hot cider."

Taichi settles him with a withered look. "It was twenty minutes."

"It felt like three hours."

Taichi rolls his eyes, settling them back on the paper in his hands. He turns it one way, checking their surroundings, then frowning. He tries a different way, but the results are the same. "Maybe we should go back to One," he mumbles. "Get our bearings."

Koushirou looks behind them. At least, he thinks it's behind them. Everywhere looks the same. He has to swallow down the panic rising in his chest. It helps when a family rounds the corner behind a row of tall, green stalks to remind him they aren’t truly lost out here. “We can attempt it."

"It's just this way," Taichi says, leading them, hopefully, back the way they had just come. It takes a few extra turns than Koushirou remembers, but he eventually recognizes the one way signs leading back into the off-way path where the very first checkpoint had been. "See?" Taichi grins at him, his shoulders rolling back as they stand by the white sign post proudly stating Checkpoint #1. Koushirou quells his own smile. Taichi just looks so proud. "Told you it was here."

"You certainly did." Warmth seeps from the cup still between his hands. It won't last too much longer. It will be cold long before they make their way through here.

Taichi goes back immediately to starring down the map. "It doesn't make sense."

"Can I see?" Koushirou queries, stepping closer. They back further up against the wall of corn as several other groups begin to crowd around the signpost, whipping out their cellphones to record the code written on the sign next to it.

"We're here," Taichi explains unnecessarily. He points to the One marked on the map. "So if we want to find the second checkpoint, we should go... left," Taichi points to the distant left.

Koushirou considers the paper and then the proposed path. He frowns back at the map. The lines loop and curve into the shape of a great kraken wrapping its arms about a huge vessel.

There's a crispness to the wind as it passes around them, teasing the leaves of the corn stalks. Koushirou wonders if they leave some of the corn unharvested for aesthetic reasons, or because they haven’t quite ripened yet. His nose burns from the cold. Taichi shuffles beside him.

Behind them leaves rustle and the tall stalks bend this and that, pushed by something heavier than wind. Koushirou pulls away first, his shoulder bumping back into Taichi's chest. He would have planted on his rump, Koushirou is certain, if the other had not righted him with a hand to either side of his waist.

His heart doesn't quite settle as quickly as his momentum. He should be used to these surprises by now, Koushirou reminds himself. Safety had never been promised in the digital world. His odds are more favorable in the realized world, among children at a farm.

"Agumon!" Taichi chastises at the first sign of the yellow dinosaur emerging out from between the tall stalks. Koushirou must be strange, for he finds relief looking at the familiar sharp canines protruding on either side of his long snout. "You’re not allowed to just walk through the corn."

"Why not?" Agumon wonders. He tilts his head.

"The corn is a barrier," Koushirou tries. "They're walls."

If he had a nose to wrinkle, Koushirou is positive Agumon would. "Isn't corn a food?"

"Not here, buddy."

Agumon makes a confused sound. His bright green eyes trade attention between Taichi and Koushirou for a moment. "Okay," he concedes finally. "I'll go back to Tentomon."

"Don't go--" but it's too late as Agumon retraces his steps back. Still Taichi finishes with, "Back through the corn."

"They're going to beat us," Koushirou comments as he watches the tops of the corn stalks wiggle over the distance until the area about them is still again.

Taichi snorts. "By cheating."

Koushirou huffs a laugh of his own, looking back and up to the other man. He freezes. Taichi's eyes are still watching the distance, lips pulled back in an exasperatedly fond smile, dusk drenching his face in a lovely shade of sun-kissed even this far into autumn. Koushirou's face feels warm enough to combat the crisp evening breeze, his nose almost close enough to brush along the broad side of Taichi's jaw. The hands still settled on his side feel warm even through several layers of wool and fleece.

His heart stutters.

"You okay?" Taichi asks. Concern crinkles the corners of his eyes.

"You're warm," Koushirou says, dumbly. It answers nothing.

Taichi smiles brightly.

Wind rushes past them. His fingers feel excessively frozen and sticky. Koushirou looks down. The cider cups rolls against his foot, empty, pushed by the breeze. It's lid lays on the ground. The bottom of his slacks are damp.

"I apologize," he lets out, looking back up. "I dropped your cider."

Taichi laughs. Koushirou can feel it reverberate where his back still meets Taichi's chest. He rights himself just as a family comes around the bend of the corn walls. Taichi tells him, "It's fine. I'll have hot chocolate when we get back to your place."

"So," Koushirou continues, pressing his lips together. "Left."

"Right." Taichi says.

"You said left," Koushirou quips. He smiles back when Taichi sends him a nonplussed half-glare. He picks up the now empty cup from the dirt floor, never one to litter on purpose, and follows Taichi along. After a moment the taller boy freezes, looking back to the map.

"Hold on. There should be," Taichi starts, wetting his lips. Koushirou stares, wondering if the action leaves them feeling colder. He tries not to think of ways to help. "There should be a loop here."

Koushirou looks down, squinting at the map as he slides up beside him. He feels like the lines should make sense, but his head feels like it's swimming. He scans the instructions on the far side and snorts. "What are we following?"

"The patches of white."

"The black lines are the path. White is corn."

"No," Taichi insists, but his face reads as if he knows Koushirou's right.

Koushirou motions for Taichi to relinquish his map duties. With a deep frown, he complies. Koushirou snorts as he hands over his phone, the website for the corn maze still open. Taichi takes it from his hand, fingers warm where they brush against his skin. To distract himself, Koushirou looks back to the map. They must be a higher left than the first checkpoint and so he decides they must go, "That way."

It takes them less than five minutes this time to find the next checkpoint. Taichi purses his lips to one side, defeated, as he enters the code on the white post.

"You're as bad at reading these as you are at drawing them."

"Come on," Taichi complains a second behind him as they work their way to the third checkpoint. Koushirou checks the map at the next looping path. One suction cup of the tentacle. Three more before they turn. "I was like ten."

Three suction cups; six paths, Koushirou counts. To Taichi he says, "Some traits are immutable I suppose."

The third checkpoint is crowded. They stand back as the few groups enter the codes on their own phones. Koushirou breathes in. It feels cold all the way down his throat.

"Speaking of change," Koushirou starts, "have you adjusted to college?"

Taichi leans in close beside him, his weight steadying. "Different," he seems to decide after a minute. "It's good to be back in Odaiba for a short while, though."

Koushirou keeps his gaze forward even as his chest tightens. "New friends?" They move forward as the groupings abate from around the sign post.

"I guess," Taichi shrugs. He sniffles a little. "I was actually invited to a Halloween party tonight."

Koushirou looks up at him. "Oh."

"I'm, uh, not going," Taichi adds needlessly.

He hadn't meant to mention it in the first place, Koushirou knows. They move forward again.

Taichi adds the new numbers in. He snorts and shows Koushirou the screen where a small pop up declares, "We never thought you'd make it to checkpoint number 3!"

Koushirou looks up at him. "Why didn't you go?"

He hadn't meant to ask it.

Taichi hums. His eyes dart back down onto the phone, even though there’s nothing for him to do at the moment. "I thought this sounded more fun," he says. His ears look red. Koushirou suspects it might be from more than just the cold. His own ears burn. "Plus there's a chance for a free iPad, right? Thought we could win it together."

"We should pick something up," Taichi suggests as they start walking again, "before we head back home."

It hasn't been very long since they last met up, Koushirou knows. Taichi is still Taichi, from his charming grin to the way he speaks. He isn't really sure what's bothering him. Maybe, he thinks, it’s that things should be different.

"Watch something a little seasonal," Taichi is still saying. "How does that sound?" He hesitates for a moment, waiting for Koushirou to fall into step beside him.

"You could have gone to the party," Koushirou tells him, quietly. He wishes the moment it leaves his mouth that the wind would carry it away. He looks away when Taichi turns to look at him. "There's only one entry per team for the raffle."

Taichi hums. "I don't need an ipad."

"Then what do you acquire from this?"

Silence settles in between them for a moment. "Time with you," he finally admits. When Koushirou looks up this time, it's Taichi who avoids his stare.

By the time they make it to the eighth checkpoint Taichi asks, "How's school for you?"

"I see Hikari in the hallways sometimes," Kosuhriou mentions. "I'm sworn to not tell you she misses you."

Taichi rolls his eyes, fondly. "You know we spent all night binging the end of this show we started before I left. She was gonna watch it without me if I refused." As if to emphasize his point, Taichi yawns.

"It's been different," he tells Taichi after a moment. They return back to their pace. Familiar one way signs hint to another checkpoint. Koushirou checks the map, eyeing the paths as they walk by them to not miss the turn.

"Senior year's a pretty big change."

Koushirou looks down. His face burns, simultaneously too hot and too cold. "I suppose," he admits. "But mostly, I miss being able to see you there."

Taichi stops again. Koushirou wishes the corn maze would swallow him whole. Taichi switches his weight from one side to the next.

"I wish I'd had the nerve to ask you out before I went off to college," he admits. His voice is quiet, especially for Taichi. Koushirou wonders if it would be easier for his heart, if Taichi were to sound more brazen, more confident. He doesn't quite know what his mouth is doing, can't quite remember how to use it for anything worthwhile.

Several people around them also stop, muttering and gawking. He thinks he hears someone say, "A giant ladybug."

Koushirou looks up curiously and feels a wave of amusement and weariness wash over him at the sight of a dark red creature rising over the corn in the distance. He recognizes Tentomon's silhouette immediately, his wings beating to keep himself up. Clutching to the end of his claws is certainly--

"Agumon," Taichi groans half heartedly. "Those cheaters."

It feels like the tension snaps all of a sudden and Koushirou laughs. Taichi grins back at him, soon dissolving into a deep, stomach aching chortle of his own.

"At least we have the moral high ground," Koushirou offers as the two digimon disappear behind the grove of corn stalks once more.

"At least we have that," Taichi agrees, nodding. He steps back for a moment, reaching out just a bit before his hand finds Koushirou's own. "And more time together," he adds.

Koushirou thinks his heart might be in danger of hammering out of his chest asTaichi pulls him along the path once again. He blames it on the other boy when they come to a deadend sometime later, for distracting him from the map.

"Longer time together than I thought, then.”

"Salutations," Tentomon greets them, standing by the giant Congratulations sign off the side of the exit.

"We won!" Agumon calls, throwing his clawed hands up in the air as he runs up to greet Taichi and Koushirou at the exit to the maze.

Taichi narrows his eyes in a not entirely unkind way. "Flying was also against the rules, bud."

"No it wasn't," Agumon argues. "You never said it was."

"I think it was implied."

Koushirou snorts as he walks over to the last poster.

"Do you think you'll win it?" Tentomon wonders, hovering nearby.

"Statistically," Koushirou says, inputting the final numbers into his phone, "it's improbable we'll win anything." The screen flashes a confirmation that they completed all the checkpoints. Koushirou adds in a few personal details where the app prompts him.

"I don't know," Taichi laughs. His hand finds Koushirou's again the moment he drops it at his side. Taichi's smile is blinding as he squeezes his fingers between each of Koushirou's own. "I already kinda feel like I won."

Koushirou grins back.

"But you lost to us," Agumon puts in.

#taishirou #taishiro #trick-or-treat #winged-wolf-dreamer #sparkle garbage

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